Skip to main content
Main

Pepper Pickle

A pickled mixture of green peppers, tomatoes, onions, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pepper Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Take a number of green peppers, half as many tomatoes, and a quarter as many onions.

  2. Grind the peppers and tomatoes, then salt well and let stand for several hours.

  3. Drain overnight in a bag.

  4. Grind the onions and mix with ground mace and celery seed.

Pickle and finish

  1. Cover all with vinegar and sweeten to taste.

  2. Cut one red pepper and add it to the mixture.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green peppers
Form the bulk of the pickle and provide its fresh, vegetal body.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that blend into the pickle's sauce.
Onions
Contribute pungency and savory depth once ground into the mixture.
Vinegar
Acidifies the mixture, preserving it and giving it its sharp tang.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness, adding sweetness to taste.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the ground peppers and tomatoes. Salt draws water out of the ground vegetables through osmosis. Draining them thoroughly after standing removes that liquid, so the finished pickle stays firm rather than watery and diluted by the vinegar.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, tomato, onion, celery, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, onion, celery, vinegar, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes